By Teri Knight, News Director
“We’re going to be extending the distant learning throughout the rest of the year”, Governor Walz’s announcement yesterday. Northfield School Superintendent Dr. Matt Hillmann said he wasn’t surprised as he joined Jeff Johnson yesterday afternoon. While most of the feedback on distance learning has been positive, “there are other where parents or staff and now students are giving us feedback on areas for growth. We are going to continue to improve our distance learning through the end of the year”. He added, “they did indicate that the Governor’s executive order does provide guidance to the Dept. of Education to provide additional
instruction for schools about distance learning over the summer”. The Class of 2020 will certainly be hit the hardest with no proms, no in person commencements, no spring sports, no tossing their caps. Gov. Walz spoke directly to the class in his speech, saying, “you will be defined by understanding how interconnected our world is and what it means to come together to try and solve hard problems”. Principal Joel Leer is working on a commencement process, they’re just not sure how it’s going to look yet. May 1st and May 4th school staff will further prepare for long distance learning with statewide training and guidance. Students will be back at learning on May 5th. Childcare will continue those two days for first responders children. They also plan to continue the food program too.
Care/training for the dogs doesn’t stop – major Believet fundraiser does
“Freedom for Veterans, Dogs with a Mission”, the mission statement for Believet. Tonight was to be the annual fundraiser at The Grand Event Center, their largest fundraiser. Sam Daly and his friend, local businessman and U.S. Army veteran John Sinning established the non-profit in 2015 to train dogs for veterans suffering from various disabilities including PTSD. Due to Covid-19, the fundraiser was cancelled. Daly commented on their current situation, “the doors are closed to the public but we’re still meeting people as necessary to make sure the dogs are clean and well cared for. That they get food and medication and those kinds of things because we have 39 dogs out there and those needs have to be cared for no matter what”. With reduced staff and volunteers, those fostering these dogs are working overtime to train them using videos sent by Daly, adding another layer of difficulty. While the dogs are receiving training, the veterans are not and 50% of successful training is the handler, “and that’s why we train the Veterans to handle these dogs because everyone’s different, they’re all custom trained for a particular individual that may have differing disabilities, workplaces, home environments”. The veterans are vulnerable to begin with and not having face to face communication is problematic. Daly hopes they can open on May 4th as a soft opening. Daly said, “training these dogs means having some contact with the clients and we’re experiencing a lot of delays in that. It also means that some of our placements are not moving forward right now, which means that our waiting list grows and continues to be long”. Many of the veterans suffer from anxiety and depression and these dogs are so very important to them. With Daly unable to go to his speaking engagements, which is where they often get volunteers and donations, they need your help. With the cancellation of their largest fundraiser, they need your help. Go to believet.org to donate. Sam’s interview is HERE.
Dundas Farmer improving water quality
Dundas Farmers are improving water quality in Rice Creek. As part of a Cannon River Watershed Partnership (CRWP) project, 11 farmers are learning first-hand how an intensive use of cover crops in the 4,100 acre watershed can impact the water quality and stream habitat of Rice Creek. CRWP Conservation Manager, Alan Kraus, reports that since 2018, these farmers have been planting those cover crops on 940 acres and have reduced the Tile Drainage Nitrate by 29%. The full press release with much more information is on our Community News page HERE.
An era ends
An era ends as yesterday workers were taking down the First National Bank sign on the building on Division St. at 4th St. to make way for the formal change to Merchants Bank. Northfield Chamber President Lisa Peterson took a picture. That’s HERE.
